Nantucket has been an independent sort of place since the early settlers arrived. Originally part of New York State, it became part of Massachusetts in 1692 after a petition to Parliament by the island proprietors.

The story of Nantucket is the story of whaling, which established itself there in the mid-Eighteenth Century. Whale oil, particularly spermaceti whale oil, was prized for its bright, clear light and drew generations of hardy Nantucketers to sea. Beginning in 1672, they ranged the world, taking whales and acquiring exotic artifacts at their various ports of call.

Long sea voyages gave them plenty of time to keep journals that have enthralled readers ever since. Many took up scrimshandering on those long journeys, decorating whale teeth and other bits of bone with fanciful images that are highly prized today. Many of these artifacts are on view.

The nest of eight lightship baskets was made by Davis Hall on Nantucket in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century.

As the capital of the whaling industry, the island was hometo a wide range of ancillary businesses, chief among which wascandlemaking. The island’s first candleworks opened in 1770, bywhich time canny islanders controlled the supply of whale oil tothe colonies and to England. By the end of the Revolutionary War,candlemaking moved from the mainland to Nantucket. Early in theNineteenth Century, the island was home to about 30 candlefactories where most of the world’s candles were made. Whaling -and candlemaking – brought the island profound prosperity over thenext 100 years.

As Niles D. Parker, chief curator of the museum, puts it, “Nantucket was a one-horse town for about 150 years.” But, what a horse! The island enjoyed a standard of living and sophistication equal to or higher than that of Salem. Grand houses, like the Hadwen House, were furnished luxuriously with the most desirable objects and art. Nonetheless, the small island retained its insularity at the same time it adopted far-flung international tastes and trends. Quakerism, which drew many settlers escaping the harsh Puritanism of Boston, was a strong influence throughout the whaling era, and the Society of Friends remains active on the island today.

When petroleum was introduced around 1838, it lessened the need for whale oil, as it proved cheaper and more readily available. This occurred in tandem with a depletion of the stock of sperm whales. A few years, later a massive fire swept the town of Nantucket destroying homes and businesses. As a depression set in, hundreds of islanders, around 60 percent of the population, heeded the call of the western gold rush and departed.

Nantucket languished for several decades until around 1880 when it gained favor as a tourist destination. A railroad was established to transport visitors from the ferry dock to the beaches and later to Siasconset. It operated between 1881 and 1917. A route map is on view.

As tourism grew in the late Nineteenth Century, town fathers recognized the need to preserve the island’s unique history. They met in May 1894 at the home of Elizabeth Starbuck to organize the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA.) Soon thereafter the organization purchased the 1838 Quaker Meeting House on Fair Street, which served as its headquarters. By the time of its first annual meeting, the collections included 295 donations of artifacts and manuscript material and another 120 loans of family heirlooms and papers. Down the years, the impressive furniture, ceramics, textiles and paintings acquired by Nantucket whaling families found their way into its collections.

Nantucket’s Whaling Museum occupies the newly restored candle factory on Broad Street.

Along the way, the NHA acquired a total of 24 historicbuildings and sites. They include the Oldest House, a 1686 weddinggift to Jethro Coffin and Mary Gardner, a marriage that resolved afamily feud. There is also the Old Gaol and Fire Hose-Cart House,both of which are open from May through October. The 1800 House,actually constructed in 1801, exhibits the quintessentialarchitecture of the early Nineteenth Century, with strong Quakerinfluences. It remains intact and is used today as a resource onpreservation and design, and is the site of classes in traditionaldecorative arts and crafts.

When the 1847 Mitchell spermaceti candle factory on Broad Street came on the market in 1929, the NHA purchased it and opened the Whaling Museum in the renovated space the next year. Initially the Mitchell candleworks and then the Hadwen & Barney candleworks, the building also served as the offices of the New England Steamship Company and, finally, in 1919, an antiques shop. Some modifications had been made to the building over the years, but they were mostly add-ons. The original two-story beam press that was used to extract spermaceti oil for candles was in place but partially obscured by the construction of floors and walls around it. The recent restoration peeled away the alterations to reveal the press in all its imposing mass. The large brick ovens of the original tryworks have also been revealed.

The press is now the centerpiece of the collections, rendering Nantucket the only place in the world with a candleworks and its original beam press still in place. In a final touch, the old Hadwen & Barney factory sign was reinstalled above the entrance.

Today, the museum’s holdings run to more than 30,000 artifacts comprising 700 paintings, nearly 800 prints and drawings, 150 Nantucket lightship baskets, 800 pieces of scrimshaw, more than 2,500 whaling implements and about 6,000 pieces of furniture and decorative art objects. The objects span the course of Nantucket history, encompassing and illuminating whaling, commerce, shipping and transportation, Quakerism, farming and architecture.

The role of the most significant object on view is probably split evenly between the 47-foot skeleton of a 40-ton sperm whale suspended above the new gallery and the two-story beam press. That whale, which washed up on the beach in December 1997, was the catalyst that spurred the NHA’s renovation of the museum and drove its particular redesign. The sperm whale signifies much that is Nantucket, so when the opportunity to actually acquire one presented itself, the museum reconfigured the buildings and the candleworks to accommodate the huge skeletal whale in a midair diving position. The whale skeleton is viewable from many points in the building – a constant reminder that the sperm whale made Nantucket what it was and what it remains.

Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, descendant of original island settler Tristram Coffin, founder of the Coffin School on the island and an English baronet, is a recent and important acquisition by the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association for the Whaling Museum.

The actual process of harvesting the whale from the beachincluded traditional whaling techniques and tools. Volunteers foundthat the whaling tools right off the museum walls were far bettersuited than any modern device for removing the flesh and blubber toreveal the skeleton. The bones were buried to allow the oil toleach from them; they were exhumed five months later and thensubmerged in cages in the harbor to further the cleaning process.They were ultimately trucked to the Maine home of whale articulatorDan DenDanto who constructed mock-ups and eventually a steel frameto support the 3,500-pound skeleton.

The whale skeleton is set off by a period whaleboat whose fragility and juxtaposition attests to the exceptionally daunting challenge of whaling. A selection of harpoons and other whaling gear on view – some of which were used in the recent whale retrieval – demonstrate the rigor of whaling.

Much of the museum’s whaling gear was gathered by Edward F. Sanderson, who assisted the historical association in the purchase of the former Mitchell candleworks. Sanderson collected prodigiously, and the harpoons, whaling guns and other gear that he gathered are on view. Sanderson also acquired a fine group of British arctic whaling harpoons and whaling guns that are also on view.

The museum boasts a spectacular scrimshaw collection. Sperm whale teeth engraved by Nantucketers Frederick Myrick and Edward Burdett are among the stars of the holdings, as are other superior examples by the anonymous artists the Ceres Artisan, the Banknote Engraver and the Naval Battle Captain. Scrimshaw swifts, busks, jagging wheels, ditty boxes, furniture and tools and prisoner-of-war ship models made by inmates of English prisons during the Napoleonic wars round out the section.

Souvenirs brought back from the South Seas are another component of the museum collections. The range is as wide as the seas themselves. It includes clubs, spears, a carved miniature Maori war canoe, a dancing mask of moss, seaweed and grass from New Ireland and ceremonial U’u clubs from the Marquesa Islands, a warrior’s sharkskin body armor and a Hawaiian tribal necklace of whale tooth and hair.

Other objects on view range from the early Eighteenth Century Coffin family wedding skirt to a selection of Liverpool jugs, to the pillow Robert Louis Stevenson used in Samoa. There are Nantucket baskets and Nantucket lightship baskets aplenty, and the 1850 Fresnel lens from the Sankaty Head Lighthouse that is surrounded by a circular staircase that facilitates inspection from every angle.

The Whaling Museum holds an impressive paintings collection with works by the best of the best. A wall of captain’s portraits, most of which were executed by itinerant artists, includes one of Captain Absalom Boston, a successful African American whaleman who sailed with an all-black crew. It is attributed to the Prior-Hamblin School.

The mid-Nineteenth Century dressing case with mirror was made by Captain James Archer for his wife Mary aboard the whaler Afton during an Atlantic voyage between 1853 and 1856. The case is con-structed of mahogany inlaid with ebony, ivory, rosewood and whalebone and comprises some 1,900 pieces.

A John Singleton Copley portrait of Eighteenth Century whaleoil merchant and captain Timothy Folger was probably painted inBoston, as Copley was not known to have visited the island. Theonly known Copley portrait of a Nantucketer, it is a relativelyrecent acquisition. Folger helped his second cousin, BenjaminFranklin, chart the Gulf Stream in 1769 and learn why it tookconsiderably longer to sail from England to the colonies than thereverse trip.

Several portraits by Spoilum and other China Trade artists are also on view, along with work by Eastman Johnson, who summered on the island for years, and by late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Nantucket artist Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin. The most recent addition to the museum is the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, an English baronet and descendent of original settler Tristram Coffin. Isaac Coffin established a Lancastrian School in 1827 to provide an English education to Tristram Coffin’s descendents, which included most of the children on the island. The Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association donated the picture in memory of Tucker Gosnell.

While about 95 percent of the NHA collections have not been on view for decades, the restoration of the candleworks changes all that. The new space has increased the museum’s exhibit space by an additional 40 percent. It has also been brought up to date with appropriate climate controls and other technological improvements. The museum restoration was privately funded and greatly expands the reach of the institution.

Frank D. Milligan, who is the executive director of the association, said the state-of-the-art climate controls and the redesigned galleries will allow the museum to bring temporary exhibits to the island. He looks to rotating the collections so that a larger percentage can be viewed than was previously possible. Milligan also said that the museum looks forward to putting together its own traveling exhibits, spreading the story of the enormous historic, economic and social highs and lows that signify Nantucket.

The Nantucket Historical Association and Whaling Museum is at 13 Broad Street.

For information, 508-228-1894 or www.nha.org.